Mum’s anger at school place snub

Chloe Turner with her daughter Ellie, aged three at Wherwell Road, Rastrick.

A mum from Brighouse has been told her daughter cannot attend her local primary school – even though she lives just over 100 yards away from the gates.

Chloe Turner says she moved to her home on Wherwell Road so that her two children - Ellie, three, and George, one - could attend nearby Woodhouse Primary School.

But her application for Ellie to go there has been rejected, as has her second choice of Carr Green Primary School, with her daughter being placed in Castlefields Infant School more than a mile away.

Miss Turner is appealing the decision but said she has not been given an explanation about the decision. She said: “We moved to the house purely so we could send the children to the school.

“We could’ve got a better house elsewhere but we wanted the children to go to a good school.

“It’s ridiculous. Nothing has been said about it and they’ve acted as if it’s all my fault. I’m having to get a solicitor for a hearing but I still haven’t got a date yet.

“I’m not travelling all that way when there is a school across the road.

“It would add an extra hour to my day every day of the week. I feel it’s been someone else’s mistake but I’m having to pay for it.

“It wouldn’t have been so bad if she’d got into her second choice. One option is to hold her back for another year but I really don’t know what to do next. There’s no communication, I don’t know what’s happening or what I’m meant to do.”

Miss Turner says the problems started when her old address was wrongly given on her application.

She said: “We’ve lived here (Wherwell Road) for three years but when they came back to me they had two addresses down, one of which was my old one. I sent them bank statements, water bills and tax credits with my address on to prove where I live but they’re still putting down my old address. But even my old address is only two minutes away and I grew up there and went to Woodhouse Primary myself.”

Judith Wyllie, Calderdale Council’s head of commissioning and partnerships, said: “Every effort is made by Calderdale Council to offer parents a place for their child at their preferred school, although this is not always possible where schools are popular and oversubscribed. If none of a parents’ preferences can be met, a place will be offered at the closest school to the family home where vacancies exist.”